2026 calendar

2026 opens on a Thursday, which leaves a single working Friday between New Year's Day and the weekend — and Friday is the short day of the UAE week in any case, finishing at noon across the federal government. Ramadan begins on Wednesday 18 February and runs to the middle of March, with the working day cut by two hours under the labour law for its whole duration. Eid Al Fitr then falls on Friday 20 March and carries the Saturday and Sunday with it, so two of the three holiday days are absorbed by the weekend rather than added to it.

Arafah Day lands on Tuesday 26 May and the three days of Eid Al Adha follow on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, producing the longest continuous break of the year: four holiday days running straight into a weekend. The Hijri New Year holiday sits on Monday 15 June, moved to the start of the working week by the Cabinet from the Tuesday that 1 Muharram actually falls on. By then the heat has settled in — figures in the low forties inland by the middle of June, and every outdoor plan pushed to before 7 am or after 8 pm.

The Prophet Mohammed's Birthday holiday is taken on Friday 28 August, three days after the religious date of Tuesday 25 August and the largest shift the Cabinet has applied to a holiday under the 2024 resolution. August is also the month the academic year restarts, in its last full week, and the month the humidity peaks: the thermometer reads lower than July but the air off the Gulf makes it feel worse, with dew points high enough to fog a camera lens the moment it leaves an air-conditioned car.

Eid Al Etihad falls on Wednesday 2 and Thursday 3 December, cutting the working week in half rather than joining a weekend, with Commemoration Day on the Tuesday before it — marked with a silence at 11 am and flags at half mast, though it remains a working day. Europe puts its clocks back on 25 October, so from that Sunday London sits four hours behind the UAE again rather than three. The year ends on Thursday 31 December and runs to 365 days, with the outdoor season at full strength throughout the final quarter.